This tutorial provides a brief walk-through of how to enter your CANS assessments into the Cedar Rapids Collaborative CANS Interface.
The CANS Reporting Interface allows you to:
- Record multiple CANS assessments for a given case
- See case-level CANS reports, to monitor treatment progress across time
- Create a treatment plan for your case based on actionable CANS items
- Export raw data for upload to the TCOM Upload Form – these will be used for agency-wide and collaborative-wide reports
1) Entering your assessment
Step One
For each new client, open the application by clicking the on the CANS Assessment file on your desktop (or wherever you have saved it). Click enable content so that the interface can work properly.
Step Two
After opening the file, several worksheets are available in buttons on the Home Page, also accessible at the bottom of the screen in tabs.
Start by clicking Assessments and entering ALL information into the Youth Information, Primary Contact Information, Family Structure, and Family Care Team headings. Enter only valid dates into date fields – other text will prompt an error message.
Note that the Youth ID is auto-generated by the form and should not be altered.
Step Three
You are now ready to enter the assessment information below. For each assessment section you need to:
- provide the assessment date in the top left cell of the section
- identify the rating for each item, and
- offer a brief description where needed
Ratings can be entered using the drop down box or by typing into the field.
Note that if items with asterisks next to them are rated a 1, 2, or 3, their corresponding module will open below. For example, if the Legal item in the Life Functioning Domain is marked as a 3, the Juvenile Justice module will open up, so that ratings can be entered there.
2) View your Interactive CANS Reports
Step One
From the Home Page, click the Data Reports button to navigate to the reporting page.
The graphs in this section will allow you to view CANS ratings for this case across as many assessments as you have entered in the Assessments page in the previous section.
Step Two
If you have just entered new data, click Refresh Chart Data to see all existing assessment data.
Each domain has a bar chart showing all item ratings in that domain, across each assessment recorded in this CANS Assessment and Plan document.
Step Three
Below each graph, note the blue rectangles that contain the names of of Items and of each Assessment Dates entered on the Assessments page. In the example below, you can see that two assessments have been entered, one on 1/15 and one about three months later on 4/12.
To view just one item in a domain, click the relevant item – it will stay highlighted in blue, and all others will white-out. All highlighted items will display in the graph above.
To view multiple items, use the slicers:
- First click a single item
- Hold down
CTRLon your keyboard - Then click the desired items and assessment dates
- Release
CTRLto see your filtered chart - To reset your filters/slicers, click
Reset Chart Slicersat the top of the page.
 
3) Create a Treatment Plan
Step One
On the home page, click the Treatment Plan button to navigate to the printable Treatment Plan tool. You will see that the information you entered on the Assessments page has auto-filled to this plan here. That text can still be modified if you edit it on the Assessments page.
You will also notice that identified needs in the most recent assessment have auto-filled to the column on the far right of your screen – these options will be available to you as Treatment Target Needs on this page.